Australia's emerging mobile commerce (m-commerce) registered total sales of up to $155 million in 2010 despite consumer concerns on security of online purchases, according to a new survey conducted by Nielsen.

Undertaken to measure the present size of the country's m-commerce, the PayPal-commissioned survey also showed that some 68 percent of Australian consumers would opt to utilise their handsets in future online transactions.

The report also highlighted the peak moments of 'on the go' shopping as many local consumers expressed their preferences in doing their online shopping at a convenient time, whether they are on a lunch break, commuting and resting at home.

The survey said that Australians tend to spend more using their mobile phones, with many of the 500 respondents who participated indicating their inclination "to purchase higher-priced products when there is a facility to do it, with airline tickets at the top of their list."

It turned out, however, that security is of great concern as the study showed that more than 50 percent of Aussie mobile shoppers believe that in-place security measures employed by online retailers were at best wanting, and if the situation improves, mobile shopping would most likely spike too.

The new Nielsen report found too the inadequacy of delivering the same online shopping experience being offered by both sectors of e-commerce and m-commerce while 38 percent of those queried said that sluggish connection and small screens make them uncomfortable in conducting their virtual window shopping.

PayPal Australia managing director Frerk-Malte Feller said that with multi-million spent on online shopping last year, further growth can only be expected though he admitted that some segments of the industry will outpace others in terms of growth.

Nevertheless, the upswing of more mobile purchases only pointed to the exploding possibilities of the growing sectors as Feller stressed that "even traditional retailers are seeing a double-digit percentage of their sales now go through mobiles."

PayPal said that the million-dollar sales realised by m-commerce in 2010 could easily graduate into billion-dollar revenues for Australia and the global markets as Feller added that "it's certainly a very fast growth segment and there are many companies going into the field but we feel we are really well positioned with the base that we have."